For sale: closed KFC on Buffalo's popular Elmwood strip
By Sharon Linstedt NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER
Updated: 07/17/08 9:17 AM
A Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on Buffalo’s Elmwood Strip, closed since March due to health code violations, is up for sale.
F&R Development, a local investment group that developed the restaurant at 448 Elmwood Ave. in the mid-1960s, is asking $425,000 for the property. Robert Marcus, of Pyramid Brokerage Co.’s Buffalo office, which is handling the sale, said the site is getting a lot of attention.
“It’s a hot little property because of where it’s located,” Marcus said. “There’s been a lot of interest it because it has great redevelopment potential. I doubt it will remain a restaurant.”
The broker confirmed a potential buyer has signed a purchase agreement and is exploring the possibility of tearing down the one-story, 1,700-square-foot restaurant to open the site to a multi-story, mixed-use complex.
Elmwood Village Association Executive Director Justin Azzarella said redevelopment of the site, located on the northwest corner of Elmwood Avenue and Bryant Street, would benefit the immediate neighborhood and the greater Elmwood Avenue area.
“It’s been a tough corner for years,” Azzarella said. “Three of the corners have surface parking lots, two of them anchored by national chains.”
In addition to the KFC, the intersection is also home to a Rite- Aid drug store and a parking lot for Women and Children’s Hospital staff.
Azzarella said the village association and neighborhood residents will be thrilled to see a complete overhaul.
“It would be wonderful to see the KFC building go away and be replaced by something with appropriate scale and style and density. It would be a big win for Elmwood,” Azzarella said.
The group, which has made an offer for the property, is said to be weighing the feasibility of constructing a mixed-use building with first-floor retail and integrated parking, and apartments on the upper floors.
Marcus said he expects that group to make a final decision about the project by the end of August.
Open since 1965, the KFC has had a spotty track record the past few years. The Erie County Health Department closed it down in May 2007, citing a list of sanitary code violations. The restaurant was shuttered for good in March in the wake of serious plumbing problems that resulted in an unhealthy mix of raw sewerage and used cooking oils to be pumped out onto Elmwood Avenue.
The restaurant had been operated by Columbus, Ohiobased G&H Restaurant Specialties LLC. The KFC franchise continues to operate chicken eateries at 170 Abbott Road and 401 Michigan Ave. in Buffalo.
